What ya working on?

[DT Fan]

Sorting, again! Kind of fell down a rabbit hole. Looked for a recipe, wound up sorting all the cookbooks, clippings, and hand written ones from my mother and grandmother. Needed to be done but holy cow, what a job! Did eventually find the recipe, in the last book I looked at. Might just make it for lunch. Was prepared to just wing it from memory, tuna-noodle-casserole, not that complicated. I should note that there were a lot of really great sounding ones but the reality is, I'm never going to use them. Lots of crap I'd never make on a bet too.

That kind of falls in the bigger scheme of getting the house more organized. Finally got moved into my 'office' and hung up the last deer head. The bed where he had resided since getting here is nearly uncovered now. If a party breaks out and someone isn't fit to drive, well, they'll have a comfortable place for the night.

I could go out to the shop more but February is a good month to unwind a bit!

[DT Fan]

Well, I'm thwarted on the T-N-C for lunch for now. Can't find the dish to bake it in. This is why moving sucks so bad! It's got to be here but no idea where I put it. Probably have to buy a new one.  Dreading this sort of thing is a big reason I drug my feet so long on making the move.

[Alan Dinan]

2 hours ago, DT Fan said:

Well, I'm thwarted on the T-N-C for lunch for now. Can't find the dish to bake it in. This is why moving sucks so bad! It's got to be here but no idea where I put it. Probably have to buy a new one.  Dreading this sort of thing is a big reason I drug my feet so long on making the move.

You’ll find it as soon as you buy a new one!!

[Alan Dinan]

My wife complains that we have too much stuff. When we need something and I say we have one, she asks where it is. I just say that the last time I saw it, it was here. Not where it was the last time I saw it. By the time we can find it, it’s faster to go buy a new one!!

 I guess we either need to get rid of a bunch of stuff or make it more organized!!

 I guess I need to get started on that new shed!!

[Finney]

7 hours ago, just Dave said:

I like your approach on the repair, I’m guessing it won’t ever break so we may never know . I lean towards brazeing when you want the strongest.                                             I like your heating rig, I imagine you built the stove? It looks like you bring ceiling heat down with the blower intake?

 

Yes i built it around 15 years ago, 3/8" plate and 16" pipe quartered with a 12" heat exchanger with 2" inside for the air passage.

[just Dave]

8 hours ago, Gearclash said:

Spindle taper is NMTB40 as you suspected.  Tool holder is a Gorton collet holder that uses Universal ZZ collets.  Very quick to change tools, faster than ER collets but the holder retainer is very bulky compared to ER and can cause clearance problems.  Also the ZZ collet has one compete slit in it and 3 partials so if a person were to pursue runout to the last 10th these would not be a good choice.  The Gorton holder and a nearly complete set of collets came with the mill.  Collet size can range fron 1/8" or so up to 1" so it is really handy for the widely varying work I do. 

I really need a collet tool holder for my hor bor but those are hard to come by.  It uses a parent quick change taper that is the equivalent of a CAT45 size.  They exist, I know Nikken made them for the ER collets, but I haven't seen one for sale yet. 

If been to find some good machine tool items on Acto auction site. I like Manchester parting tools, NLA . I’ve found some there in a buy it now kind of section. I’m glad I saved the chipped parting inserts for many years. Regrinds are fine for my old pace.   By the way are you the Gearclash on Practical Machinist site?

[forwhldrv]

Had to go to some training this week for work at the Oshkosh dealer for New England. It was a training course on the new S series mixers we have 5 in the last two years and one more due in march or April of this year. Most of the time I drive a mixer but have been fixing trucks and plants and Equipment for years. This course was to help familiarize  us in some of the electrical systems and computer systems used on the new truck it was quite helpful in helping to break down how each of the 4 systems work that run the truck without dealing with the Cummins and Allison and ABS systems that are also on the truck. The amount of information that the truck can tell you is unbelievable. Here’s a few pics from the shop and pics of the new truck that’s at our main plant waiting for me to get into and the 2002  truck I still run and a couple from my ride in it was a 160 mile a day commute back and forth each day . The new one came in the end of October it has been sitting since waiting to be put in service. 

[Wes806]

16 minutes ago, forwhldrv said:

Had to go to some training this week for work at the Oshkosh dealer for New England. It was a training course on the new S series mixers we have 5 in the last two years and one more due in march or April of this year. Most of the time I drive a mixer but have been fixing trucks and plants and Equipment for years. This course was to help familiarize  us in some of the electrical systems and computer systems used on the new truck it was quite helpful in helping to break down how each of the 4 systems work that run the truck without dealing with the Cummins and Allison and ABS systems that are also on the truck. The amount of information that the truck can tell you is unbelievable. Here’s a few pics from the shop and pics of the new truck that’s at our main plant waiting for me to get into and the 2002  truck I still run and a couple from my ride in it was a 160 mile a day commute back and forth each day . The new one came in the end of October it has been sitting since waiting to be put in service. 

With all the knobs and push bottoms it remind me of something a person would see on robot video game.  Really though that is really neat. The things they can do now days.  I would get confused for sure trying to run it.  

[Gearclash]

30 minutes ago, just Dave said:

By the way are you the Gearclash on Practical Machinist site?

Yea.

[forwhldrv]

6 minutes ago, Wes806 said:

With all the knobs and push bottoms it remind me of something a person would see on robot video game.  Really though that is really neat. The things they can do now days.  I would get confused for sure trying to run it.  

I did when I first got in the yellow one at the dealership other than yesterday I had never been in one of the new ones. I was told to get in and check for fault codes in the screen and they told us how to access them in class but all the rest of the truck I had no idea what the knobs and buttons did. The instructor would go in plug a sensor or purposely ground something out and we had to figure the problem out. He even had swapped out a couple fuses that he cut a prong off so they looked find and did the same thing with a relay. So it would throw a code and go in a default mode and we had to figure out why it would be in a default mode  and then break down the reason why it did what it did. The instructor was good. It’s gonna be a hard learning curve to jump in a new one I have had the model I’m getting out of since 02 not the truck I have now but 2 others since then the one I had before the blue and while one I have now I had for 11 years. 

[IHKeith]

Pulled a donor engine in a Mitsubishi Outlander tonight and started checking out my 89 Ovation for a backwoods sled tour tomorrow.  Getting picked up for the tour around 11am so I have a decent amount of time in the morning for what I don’t do tonight.

[Drysleeves]

10 hours ago, IHKeith said:

Pulled a donor engine in a Mitsubishi Outlander tonight and started checking out my 89 Ovation for a backwoods sled tour tomorrow.  Getting picked up for the tour around 11am so I have a decent amount of time in the morning for what I don’t do tonight.

When in doubt....get a bigger hammer....

[Finney]

Got called out for a track hoe with a cracked frame. A Takeuchi. The welds on the inside are some of the worse I have ever made, could not get my dead where I could see.

[Cool1566]

I’m sure your “bad” welds are better than most people’s good welds! I’m sure you could hear it and tell it was doing right. 

[TroyDairy]

On 2/14/2025 at 3:50 PM, forwhldrv said:

Had to go to some training this week for work at the Oshkosh dealer for New England. It was a training course on the new S series mixers we have 5 in the last two years and one more due in march or April of this year. Most of the time I drive a mixer but have been fixing trucks and plants and Equipment for years. This course was to help familiarize  us in some of the electrical systems and computer systems used on the new truck it was quite helpful in helping to break down how each of the 4 systems work that run the truck without dealing with the Cummins and Allison and ABS systems that are also on the truck. The amount of information that the truck can tell you is unbelievable. Here’s a few pics from the shop and pics of the new truck that’s at our main plant waiting for me to get into and the 2002  truck I still run and a couple from my ride in it was a 160 mile a day commute back and forth each day . The new one came in the end of October it has been sitting since waiting to be put in service. 

Always fascinating to me why someone builds complete truck for a mixer.  Never seen a Oskosh type here or ID and OR honestly.  All like 90% T800 and now T880 kw.  Locally they get retured and muxer scrapped and then become silage trucks for us dairyman.  Nice shop!

[TroyDairy]

Loader 2 has water in oil.  Asssssuming liner crack.  Pulled pan an my mechanics going to psi system to comfirm.  8000hr but was from area with notorious hard water and cowboy hay farm.  Prob not alot of service to coolant.  Will sleeve and piston with OEM parts if confirm sleeve.  2300 for parts and just do inframe.  Looks clean otherwise and runs like a watch normally.

 

 

Fyi put pallet an blocks under fuel tank BEFORE the last couple threads on the tank straps....  boom!  And its way fuller than i guessed.

[forwhldrv]

50 minutes ago, TroyDairy said:

Always fascinating to me why someone builds complete truck for a mixer.  Never seen a Oskosh type here or ID and OR honestly.  All like 90% T800 and now T880 kw.  Locally they get retured and muxer scrapped and then become silage trucks for us dairyman.  Nice shop!

See around here every thing is front discharge mixers. There’s some rear discharge in the city where everything it poured from the pavement or pumped. They definitely have a nice shop down there they used to do a lot with the pre  delivery of the trucks and parts. Now they do a lot of parts and refurbishing trucks we have had them do 4-5 of them a few years ago we were to busy to do them in our shop. We have 2 in the works now in our shop. The truck I drive now was refurbished and I have had it for 4 years now the pre emissions motor runs good and hasn’t had any problems with it. The whole reason the company has started buying new ones is Massachusetts has passed a law similar to California that they want no trucks on the road so to comply we have to have some newer trucks. The new one that came in October was going to be mothballed till this spring but there’s law said it couldn’t be registered after the first of the year so the put it on the road in December and the new one that’s coming was going to be delivered to Out New Hampshire plant and registered there but they paused the law that said no new diesel heavy trucks in mass only electric. For a year or two. Yup it’s ridiculous. After years of driving a front discharge mixer I wouldn’t go back in a rear discharge they are just so much more contractor friendly. 

[nate]

Putting the super w-4 engine back together.  Slow process but making headway. 

[lorenzo]

Grinding corn for the quail.

[DT Fan]

8 minutes ago, lorenzo said:

Grinding corn for the quail.

What does Emma think of those quail?

[sandhiller]

11 minutes ago, lorenzo said:

Grinding corn for the quail.

Glad to see you got it going!

[forwhldrv]

Playing in the snow this afternoon. Moving a bunch of it so when it melts it runs off somewhere else other than flooding the chicken coop and Duck yard. We finally got snow that stayed a few weeks ago. We have had a few decent storms and rain in them so all the snow seems to be heavy. And the single digit temps seem to help keep the snow around I was running out of places to push it with the pickup so I fired up the New Holland the cab had its benefits today but I will get the fan working in the heater before next winter. 

[IHKeith]

On 2/15/2025 at 10:15 AM, Drysleeves said:

When in doubt....get a bigger hammer....

It’s a strategic counter weight, the sled is light on the rear 

[IHKeith]

I haven’t taken pictures of the jobs but in the past few weeks I have been hip deep into some engines.  Timing chains on a 3.5 EcoBoost, water pump/timing belt on a 1.5 EcoBoost, cam in a Caravan, rod bearings and oil pump in a 98 K1500.  
 

The Caravan and K1500 weren’t too hard.  The Fords aren’t the worst job but take a lot of time, it’s wild how much stuff is in a small space, keep peeling back the layers.

Book time for the 3.5 was 12 hours and the 1.5 9 hours, I took a little longer.  They say to only turn those engines clockwise.  I had the old crank bolt threaded in with a spacer to turn the crank while doing the chains, when I was done I snapped my ratchet back to loosen the bolt and it jumped a tooth, had to reset it, crazy how easy that happened.  
 

The fit of the new oil pickup and pump was tight on the K1500, I put the pickup in the freezer for a while and it was still too tight with the pump at room temperature.  I put the pickup back in the freezer and set up the heat gun to warm the pump while I had some lunch, it was some fancy rigging 

 

 

 

[td9inidaho]

Once again, just stacking them up so they can be hauled off 

Mark